As the lifespan of people has increased, so has the need for permanent dental replacements. Restorative dentistry encompasses efforts to conserve and restore decayed, defective, missing, and traumatically injured teeth, thereby promoting the dental health and achieving the aesthetic desires of the patient. An example of a prosthetic device is the dental implant, which is surgically positioned within the mandibular or maxillary alveolar bone. In the dental field, polymers are recognized as important components of composite restorative materials.
There are three main flaws with the traditional implants: the screws which hold the prosthetic tooth into the implant come loose; two separate surgeries are required (in most implant); and there is loss of bone material around the top of implants, resulting in as much as a 15% failure rate in some areas of the jaw.
Another problem with dental implants is that they are rather invasive and occasionally rejected by the body and expelled from the implantation site, such as the tooth socket (alveolus). Another concern is that current techniques employ repetitive surgery, implantation, healing and correction of the prosthesis. These procedures are typically repeated as many times as necessary to achieve the desired dental prosthesis implantation to the bone, as well as the appropriate stabilization. Consequently, these techniques are typically associated with a great deal of pain and inconvenience to the patient, as well as with the expenditure of excessive efforts and time by the oral surgeon, thereby resulting in higher treatment costs.
Therefore, there is a need for a device, such as a dental implant, and a method for the implantation of the device that not only enhances the opportunity for fixation of the device in the desired location, thereby increasing the functionality of the device, but also eases the pain, discomfort, inconvenience and cost realized by both the patient and the dental surgeon. The present invention is directed towards meeting these and other needs.
One type of dental implant has a first implant member for placement in an osteotomy site in the alveolar bone of a patient. Following healing, a head member, commonly called an abutment, is mounted in or on the first implant member and a tooth simulating prosthesis or crown is then mounted on the abutment. A successful system of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,623. Although this procedure has been acceptable, the efficacy of the result is dependent upon the skill of the technician and is highly labor intensive and time consuming.